Bobby Petrino Boston College Press Conference

“The Florida State game feels like a long, long time ago. We’ve actually moved forward and been focusing on Boston College since late Friday afternoon. They’re a very good football team. Offensively they’re going to run the ball. They run it with power and with formations that we haven’t faced a lot this year. And then they also have the quarterback runs, which make it a great challenge for us. Defensively, they’ve done a very good job stopping the run. They’re big and physical- probably a little different style team than we’ve played as far as they’re much bigger. So we’re going to have to go in and execute, and keep the balance; be able to run and throw the ball and move it down and score points. I think it’s a great challenge for us. Obviously it was a very disappointing loss against Florida State. One that we invested a lot in, energy and emotion. So the great challenge for us is to come back and practice well each day, and really get our focus and energy ready to go into another battle on Saturday night.”

(On how players have responded to Thursday’s loss)

“Well I think we’re going to be okay. We came out and played really well in the first half. We got turnovers, got the offense the ball in positions where we could go score. We were working well together, offensively and defensively. When you watch the video, you understand that you faced a really good team, one with probably more speed than we have all year. We did make some errors in communication and gave them a couple things. There were plays where it looked like maybe we were going to make the play and then they did. So it was a good battle, but we’ll be okay. I think our guys will get back on the practice field and get our confidence back and go in and play real hard.”

(On facing Boston College quarterback Tyler Murphy)

“Well it’s completely different than the pocket passer that we faced last week, because he’s going to have quarterback-designed runs, quarterback read-zone runs. He also does a good job when they call passes of breaking the contain and running the ball. We also have to be very aware of their play-action game, because they do a good job of run, run, run, and then their play-action game. So what it really does is it challenges our discipline with our eyes, and our discipline with our gap control in our assignments and gap control football.”

(On the play of the Louisville defense)

“We’ve been very stout up front, doing a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage. Our linebackers play fast. They don’t hesitate a lot and hit their gaps. We’ve been able to get the secondary help that you need reading run or pass and coming to the run. Last week we were down (defensive tackle) Pio (Vatuvei), which is a concern because he’s been a very good player for us against the run. He won’t be with us again this week, so we’re hoping he’ll be back for the Notre Dame game. But that is one of our concerns is that he won’t be with us.”

(On the health of the Louisville players)

“We still have to wait and see. We still have a couple guys who, we’ll see how the week plays out and see if they’ll be available or not.”

(On Louisville’s interest in Boston College quarterback Tyler Murphy)

“I never spoke to him, I didn’t know anything about him, must have happened before we got here.”

(Whether he was surprised Murphy has done so well this season)

“I really didn’t know a lot about him, my understanding was coach Addazio recruited him to Florida and one of the things when he graduated that’s where he was going to go. Yeah, I didn’t know anything about him. But he is a good football player, very big and strong and does a good job of making decisions.”

(On the next step for the offense)

“I think the next step is to be more consistent, get the ball in the end zone more. There was one time where we had to settle for a field goal and another time we got stopped inside the five-yard line so we have to be more consistent but I have liked the way we have operated the last two weeks more than we did earlier in the year being able to mix the run, the pass, the play-action game. I think we are getting closer to what we like to do offensively but it does start up front and we have a good challenge this week being able to handle their big guys up front and making sure we get some space, some room to run the ball.”

(On the Louisville offensive line)

“They are getting better, they have certainly in the past two weeks improved. We have gotten more holes in the run game and we have protected the quarterback better.”

(On Louisville quarterback Will Gardner)

“He improved a lot, he made some real good throws, he made some real good throws under pressure when there were people in his face and he didn’t have a lot of room. We missed a couple particularly late in the game so I think the next step we have to do as a team really and particularly on offense is when the pressure is on, we have to perform better. You know when you get the ball with six minutes to go you need to go finish the game like we did in the Miami game.”

(On whether big plays require you to change the script of the game)

“Yeah you have to come off the script so we did have an understanding of what we were going to go to if we had to run a long way to line up. Unfortunately we miss-blocked the first play and that set us back a little bit but yeah you have to come off the script and go right to your red zone plays.”

“Yeah, you can see him do that in practice sometimes where he really shows bursts and then pulls off a little bit the further he gets down the field and I’m sure he doesn’t feel like he is exactly where he would want to be. He is a tremendous football player and he has done an unbelievable job the last two weeks for us, making plays and making great catches and getting open but I do think he continues to get better and last week in practice was a significant improvement from the previous week and I am hoping we see that again this week.”

(On being under pressure in third down situations)

“We had our chances on third down. We got in some short yardage situations, we got knocked back a little bit, they were a little bit bigger and more physical in that situation on the short yardage. We had two third downs where we end up half a yard, and that’s where you would like to have the confidence to go for it on fourth down. But in that situation where you have the lead and it’s a close game, you want to punt the ball and try to flip the field. And our punting game really hurt us. When you look at it statistically, they really beat us in the punt game.”

(On what he has learned about the team since the Florida State game)

“I think this is the week that we find that out. When we go out tomorrow to practice and see how our attitude is, see who the leaders are. You’re always concerned as a coach after a game that you put so much into and you’re in it, you’re competing hard, you’re playing well and you don’t come out on the right end. SO I think this is the week that we find out who the real leaders are and it reveals our character as a team.”

(On if he is concerned with the punt game)

“It’s a concern, because it played a significant role in the game the other night. They punted the ball, they backed us up, they flipped the field, we weren’t able to flip it back, and it’s something we need to look at and work extremely hard on this week.”

(On if wide receiver James Quick will return punts this week)

“No, we kind of took him off and put Eli (Rogers) in there the other night, and Eli will be the starting punt returner.”

(On the play of defensive tackle B.J. Dubose)

“Yeah I think he’s had a great year for us. He’s given us a lot versus the run, he’s very smart, uses his hands well, he’s been very sturdy. Then he’s been able to transition from his run into the pass rush and has done an excellent job for us. He gets about one sack every game and it’s always a big, big play for us. I’ve been really happy with B.J. We were actually talking about his earlier today, how well he’s doing and how hard he’s playing and how much he’s really given us this year.”

“You teach guys that when you make the interception, get to the near sideline and get as much yardage as you can, and he’s had success running after the catch, running after the interceptions. He was just trying to do too much. It was just a simple case that he was trying to do too much, and the bad thing is if he had gotten to the sideline, he had a chance maybe to score. But then he just cut back and got too much. But it really didn’t affect the game, because that was the same drive that we stopped them on fourth down. Although if he would have scored it might have, but who knows.”

(On the recruiting opportunity created by the Florida State game)

“I think our assistant coaches did a great job of getting players here to the game. That was a real concern when we looked at our schedule, and you had a great opener on a Monday night and then another marquee game on a Thursday night was, how are we going to be able to use these for recruiting because the atmosphere is amazing. I thought it was an unbelievable atmosphere, so we did a good job of that. And we’ve been working hard at it, so it’s a real credit to our assistant coaches.”